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SIGN STOP STONING PETITION:
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/united-nations-secretary-general-the-ohchr-end-stoning-now?utm_campaign=share_button_action_box&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition
Naureen Shameem* – November 25, 2013 –
International Day on Violence Against Women
It is a scandal that in 2013 women still risk death by stoning in 15
countries. Incredibly, that number is now set to rise as the southeast Asian
Last month, the Sultan of Brunei announced a harsh new penal code based on
an interpretation of sharia law. Along with flogging and amputation for certain
crimes, the code introduces death by stoning as a punishment for adultery.
Let’s be clear. Stoning is a heinous and protracted form of torture, and
one of the cruellest kinds of violence perpetrated against women to control and
punish them for the exercise of their basic freedoms and control over their own
bodies.
This punishment is not prescribed in the Qur’an, nor is stoning legal in
most Muslim countries. Yet unfortunately today the practice is on the rise.
This past July, local sources reported that Arifa Bibi,
a young mother of two in
In 2008, 13-year-old Aisha was
buried up to her neck and stoned to death by 50 men in front of 1,000
spectators at a stadium in
In several countries, such as the UAE, women and girls who report sexual
assault may be charged with adultery if rape charges are unsuccessful.
Like many other forms of culturally-justified violence, stoning
disproportionately targets women and their conduct. In practice, women are more
often found guilty of adultery due to systematic and often legally codified
gender discrimination, as well as higher rates of poverty and illiteracy. And
if they are sentenced to death by stoning, women traditionally have fewer
avenues of escape open to them.
We must remember that stoning is a serious violation of international human
rights law. The practice contravenes a host of U.N. treaties, including the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states that no one
should be subjected to torture, or cruel or inhuman punishment.
So it’s shocking that this appalling practice continues to persist, much
less expand.
Earlier this year a number of women’s rights activists rooted in the Global
South launched an international campaign for a ban on stoning. To date, well
over 11,000 supporters from around the world have signed our petition to
the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the Office of the High Commissioner
for Human Rights.
The time to act on stoning is now, before
In
The director of the Malaysian thinktank the Islamic Renaissance
Front also said that he believes the new laws will
lead to the erosion of personal freedoms and women’s rights.
Attempting to ease public fears about the code, the government has promised
to apply a high burden of proof and said that judges would have wide discretion
in applying the law. Yet in
Women’s groups and grassroots activists in
As part of our efforts to implement a worldwide ban, the Stop Stoning
campaign will present its petition to the United Nations this coming March, and
we will work towards a crucial step in the naming and shaming of this practice:
a U.N. resolution against stoning as a form of violence against women.
This International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, let’s call for an end to the silencing of women by this brutal act of violence.
*Naureen Shameem is a
member of the international solidarity network Women Living Under Muslim Laws
(WLUML) and a coordinator of the Stop Stoning Women campaign
This article was originally published here, by Thomson Reuters